Article by
Barbados Today

Published on
December 7, 2017

A 61-year-old man, who was “amazed” over the fact that he was hauled before the court on a drug related charge, has been placed on a bond for a year.

Anthony Curtis Johnson, of St Stephen’s Hill, Black Rock, St Michael, pleaded guilty to having an apparatus in his possession on December 5 for the misuse of cocaine.

According to Sergeant Cameron Gibbons, police searched Johnson after he was detained while on Black Rock, Main Road. A cigarette box containing a small bottle with a piece of plastic pipe, as well as a lighter was found.

“Yes it is a pipe and I know what it is used for, but I found it in the cigarette box and put it in my pockets,” Johnson allegedly told police at the time.

Today he further explained that he was walking along the road after leaving a Chinese restaurant in the area where he had purchased his dinner when he “kicked the cigarette box, but it resisted”.

He said he took it because a few months ago he had found over $300 in a similar cigarette box.

“So up and in my pocket I put it,” he said, adding that a police van was passing at the same time and “all I heard was ‘whop, whop’.

“I don’t know if they saw me going down [to pick up the box] or not,” Johnson told the court.

However, he said the police had told him that they were investigating a robbery and “I say, ‘skipper what?’”

However, Magistrate Kristie Cuffy-Sargeant stopped Johnson just as he was about to become even more animated with his story, which proved quite amusing to those present in the No.2 District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court.

At that point, the bond was imposed on Johnson.

If he breaches it, he will have to pay a $750 fine or spend four months in jail.